Hopelessly Devoted To You
by bakasake
Summary: She hated then, hating the person who had come up with the famous line, ‘Who says life is ever fair?’ [HinaNaru] [Oneshot]


1**AN: **Mmmkay, so, usually, I am totally against song fics, but in the middle of writing this, I was thinking of how readers would react to Hinata, and realized that this song was completely perfect for her situation. I'm not including all the lyrics, just some bits here and there.

**Hopelessly Devoted To You **

_Hello, I'm just a fool who's willing _

_to sit around and wait for you _

She knew, from the moment she had first laid her pearlescent eyes on him all those years ago, that he would never be her's. Aside from the fact that she would never approach him on her own, he was completely infatuated with Sakura.

Yet she'd purposefully blinded herself to this and quietly pursued him from the sidelines. Each scorn by Sakura burned her heart, because she knew it also hurt him.

_How things change..._ she thought bitterly. Quickly, though, she berated herself for such harsh thoughts. It wasn't their fault that they were in love...she was just in the way.

Even now, as sat on their bed, knees drawn up, awaiting his return, she knew she had never had him. She was merely used to soften the blow of her rejection. Though it now seemed that she would have him. And have him she did; nearly every week.

Hinata was not an ignoramus; she knew that each outing for ramen was a secret rendezvous with her. Most likely to her home.

Before he left, he would ask her if she wanted to come along. If she accepted, they would go for ramen, but she could see the almost imperceptible slump to his shoulders and falter in his smile every time she agreed to join him. It ached Hinata to see him in such a way, and she had declined his invitation in future.

But he never ceased to ask.

Maybe it was his conscience; Hinata knew there was one in there somewhere. Naruto was too good of a man not to have one. Maybe he felt it was his repentance for the affair; a way to clear his morality from an act that was certainly not smiled upon.

She didn't know when it started. Naruto had been heavily depressed leading up to their marriage, and for the first year or so into it. Hinata hadn't really minded; being the quiet girl she once, she wouldn't have voiced her opinion even if she had. She was his comfort object, his way to distract himself from the obvious heartache wrenching at him.

Eventually, though, he seemed to have an epiphany. Suddenly he was the man she had fallen in love with. He would bound through the door and give her a passionate kiss to lips before leaping away to shower. The first time it happened, when she had taken her own shower later that night, she cried.

She wasn't the one who had caused this happiness.

In some part of her mind, she had wondered if she could have healed him. She had done what she thought was best and just been there for him, to support him through his troubled times. But maybe what he had needed was someone to snap him out of it. Rough him up a little, remind him that she was his wife, and he shouldn't still be dejected over a girl's refusal. Wasn't she enough?

But, she supposed dryly, if she was, then he wouldn't be going to Sakura's every Wednesday or Thursday, no?

How many nights would she wait up for him, like tonight, and beat herself up for not being good enough for him, for being so horrible as a wife and as a woman that he had to seek refuge with another? Was there something she could've, should've done differently? Probably. But it was too late.

She realized she could confront him. Bombard him with questions. He was almost painfully obvious, going out for ramen and coming back hours later with wet hair, indicating a shower taken. If she had been a woman other than Uzumaki Hinata, then she would have been finished with him the first moment she suspected the liaison.

But seeing how happy it made him to have his two loves (dare she call herself one of them?) melted her already soft heart. If it made him happy...

Still, shouldn't she be content as well? She could probably take up a side-lover also. She knew Kiba had been interested in her before, and he was still single as of late...but she knew she could never have the moxie to do so. What if she was wrong all along about Naruto and he found out about her amour? It would spell disaster that her faint and fluttering heart could not deal with.

However she tried to persuade herself, she realized she would never be able to get out. The grave had been dug and filled; people were putting daisies on the headstone. She would be stuck inside this love triangle until Sakura stopped it, which would only cause Naruto dismay, or Naruto stopped it, either ending his relationship with Sakura for her, or terminating his marriage for Sakura. Though she was caught right in the middle, she had no say.

She hated then, hating the person who had come up with the famous line, 'Who says life is ever fair?'

Deciding on the spur of the moment, fueled by her previous, uncharacteristic hatred, she would confront him tonight. No stuttering, no hesitating, laying all her cards out. He could either end it with Sakura, or she was ending it with him. She wouldn't wait for him to kick her out. She would not be weak, she would not-

The door slammed.

_My head is saying _

_"fool, forget him", _

"Hinata-chan!" He called enthusiastically, rapid footsteps climbing the stairs in time to her heavily beating heart. She fell clumsily out of bed; she couldn't address this issue sitting down.

He opened the door with a loud noise that she flinched at. He looked as flustered as ever, a wide smile across his face, rosy cheeks, headband askew. He threw down his bag, and, in one leap, before she could even begin her attack, he had taken her in his arms and was chattering excitedly.

"Oi, Hinata-chan, you won't _believe_ what the teme did. We were at Ichiraku, right? And I'm sitting there eating my ramen and he says-"

Hesitantly, Hinata sniffed. It smelled like ramen, alright. From the smell of it, he must've been doused in the noodles. She giggled. Naruto was being happy, and it had nothing to do with the other woman.

_my heart is saying_

_"don't let go" _

He continued his rant about Sasuke while he prepared for bed, and she listened with a small smile in place, laughing in all the right parts. Since when had she felt so in love with him, so happy to be near him? It was heaven to just listen to him speak to her as if there was no one else in the world he would rather share this with.

_Hold on to the end_

_that's what I intend to do _

Soon enough, the lengthy tale had finished, and they were both settling in for bed. He bent over to kiss her goodnight and she accepted with a shy blush. Even thought they had been married for three years, she was still Hinata.

A few hours later, Hinata awoke. For a moment, she was confused. It wasn't morning, the only sounds she could hear were Naruto's light snores (she had learned to tune them out), and crickets outside their window.

But with pressure steadily building in her lower abdomen, she quickly concluded the cause of her waking, and slipped silently out of the bed. Crossing the room, she hit her foot on something.

Biting back a small cry of pain, she lowered herself to the floor, arms outstretched for the perpetrator. It was...Naruto's bag? Funny, she hadn't remembered him leaving earlier with a bag...

She made her way in the dark over to a low lamp and flicked it on. Pulling open the drawstring, she curiously glanced inside.

Where she found Naruto's clothes, freshly washed, the unmistakable scent of cherry blossoms clinging to them. Her breath quickened and her eyes widened. She shot a glance to her slumbering husband; he looked so innocent in the shadows of the lamplight. Could he have fabricated that entire story?

Or had that merely been one of his ventures in the evening?

Clutching the evidence to her tightening chest she knew what she had to do...

...was the exact thing she couldn't bear herself to.

_I'm hopelessly devoted to you_

_AN:_ Poor Hinata-chan...how could Naruto do this to her? Anyway, here's another one shot; this one I fabricated (oh, I so love that word!) when my mind needed distraction from the menial task of raking grass clippings. And getting a killer blister in the process, dammit. It hurts like a -beep-

So, just remember to drop a quick line to me .


End file.
